Mumbai, Aug 21 (IANS): Hoping to slash the mortality rate, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has tweaked its guidelines to make institutional quarantine compulsory for all Covid-19 patients above the age of 50, Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal said.

According to a notification issued by Executive Health Officer Dr. Mangala Gomare on Friday, the move follows an analysis of the mortality rate among the Covid-19 patients which is very high in the 50-60 age group in Mumbai.

In view of this, corona-afflicted patients aged above 50, with or without co-morbidities, will be persuaded to get admitted to various Covid Care Centres, irrespective of symptoms.

The BMC will permit home quarantine only for those patients below 50, who have either mild symptoms or are asymptomatic and without any co-morbidity.

Until now, the BMC allowed home isolation for patients below the age of 60 who were asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, did not have any other serious diseases and had separate toilets.

Chahal said that the BMC Solid Waste Management department has been directed to sanitise the society's common premises and the home where a Covid-19 case is found.

The revised guidelines came on a day when the country's commercial recorded 7,356 deaths and 134,228 total cases - the second highest after Pune (144,450 cases and 3,598 fatalities) - in the state.

In the past two months, Mumbai has been gradually cooling off with a decline in both fatalities and infections, with Pune emerging as the national corona hotspot, while Thane ranks third with 120,262 cases and 3,513 fatalities.